Francis Ford Coppola needs a proposal he can’t refuse — on his timepieces.
The Academy Award-winning director is promoting seven watches from his private assortment, together with his customized F.P. Journe FFC Prototype, estimated to promote for greater than $1 million, in accordance with an announcement from Phillips, the New York Metropolis-based public sale home. Phillips will maintain the public sale on Dec. 6 and seven.
The sale might assist stanch losses from final yr’s box-office flop “Megalopolis,” which value over $120 million to make and was largely financed by the 86-year-old director. The film grossed solely $14.3 million worldwide.
The movie, Coppola’s first since his 2011 horror film “Twixt,” premiered at Cannes final yr to largely detrimental critiques. The Instances’ Joshua Rothkopf referred to as it a “wildly ambitious, overstuffed city epic.”
Among the many Coppola timepieces additionally going underneath the hammer are examples from Patek Philippe, Blancpain and IWC.
However the headlining piece is the F.P. Journe FFC Prototype that encompasses a black titanium, human-like hand that resembles a steampunk gauntlet that articulates the hours when the fingers lengthen or retract.
Francis Ford Coppola’s customized F.P. Journe FFC timepiece makes use of a single hand to point all 12 hours.
(Phillips)
The watch was a collaboration between Coppola and grasp watchmaker François-Paul Journe that started following a dialog the pair had throughout a go to he made to the filmmaker’s Inglenook vineyard in Napa Valley in 2012.
Coppola requested Journe if a human hand had ever been used to mark time. That query sparked a years-long dialog throughout which the watchmaker grappled with tips on how to point out the 12 hours of the dial utilizing simply 5 fingers.
Journe discovered his inspiration in Ambroise Paré, a sixteenth century French barber surgeon and an innovator of prosthetic limbs specifically, together with Le Petit Lorrain, a prosthetic hand product of iron and leather-based that featured hidden gears and is derived enabling the fingers to maneuver, not dissimilar to a watch mechanism.
“Speaking with Francis in 2012 and hearing his idea on the use of a human hand to indicate time inspired me to create a watch I never could have imagined myself. The challenge was formidable — exactly the type of watchmaking project I adore,” mentioned Journe in an announcement.
Journe ultimately created six prototypes and delivered Coppola’s watch to him in 2021.
“I’m proud to fully support the sale of this watch through Phillips to fund the creation of his artistic masterpieces in filmmaking,” he mentioned.
Coppola first took an interest within the watchmaker when he gifted his spouse Eleanor an F.P. Journe Chronomètre à Résonance in platinum with a white gold dial for Christmas in 2009, prompting the director to increase an invite to Journe to go to him at his Napa vineyard.
Eleanor Coppola, a documentary filmmaker and author, died in 2024 after 61 years of marriage. Her F.P. Journe timepiece can also be a part of the public sale and is estimated to fetch between $120,000 to $240,000.
